Beltline seals have been used for many years in automotive vehicle doors. Outer beltline seals are typically configured as a sealing device which contacts both a glazing panel and a trim appliqué, if any, applied to the door's frame. In order to provide a seal for the glazing panel, known sealing devices use a strip of material which projects into contact with the glass, as shown in prior art FIG. 5. Because the appliqué stands proud, or, in other words, projects outwardly from the adjacent glass surface, the sealing strip must be locally relieved, or cut away, in the area of an appliqué in order to permit the sealing strip to lie flat against the glazing panel. This is shown in prior art FIG. 6.
As a result of the need to locally relieve the sealing strip in known designs, road splash or other foreign material is permitted to flow from above the sealing strip to the interior of the door through the cut-out regions located at the appliqué, or other interfaces, as well as at the door frame (FIG. 6). This is undesirable because of the possibility of resulting particulate contamination of the door's lock mechanism, window controller and other internal structures. This loss of sealing interface also results in air leakage, road and wind noise intrusion, and NVH (noise, vibration, and harshness) degredation.
It would be desirable to provide a weatherstrip system for the beltline region of an automotive door which seals robustly to both the glazing panel and a trim appliqué or other interfaces, without providing a place for contamination to enter the interior of the door.